Integrated circuits which are activated by sound are well known. Such circuits can activate toy motors in response to sounds to produce dancing toys such as dancing flowers, people or cans.
Takara Co. Ltd. produced a dancing peanut in a jar in 1992 under the trademark NUTTY DANCERS in which sound activates a pre-recorded dance tune and the operation of a motor which causes a magnet to spin. In the Takara article the magnet is mounted on a shaft below a dancing stage and the axis of rotation of this magnet is in a plane parallel to the plane of the dancing stage.
In the Takara article, a toy peanut above the stage having a magnet at the peanut bottom is alternately attracted and repelled by the rotation of the magnet below the dancing stage as the polarity of the magnet presented to the dancing stage is continuously reversed. The peanut thus appears to fall down and get up in response to music. However, because the peanut is alternately repelled and attracted by a magnet which is located centrally of the dancing stage, and which does not move about the plane of the dancing stage, the movement of the peanut is relatively uninteresting. In addition, the alternate attraction and repulsion of the peanut causes it to tall and get up in a relatively predictable and monotonous routine.
The present invention seeks to improve upon the dancing characteristics of a toy figure which appears to dance to music.